Williams Lake TRU Campus is now connected to colleagues across the country and around the world.
A celebration was held Tuesday at the local campus to mark it joining the BCNet Advanced Network.
President and CEO of BCNET Bala Kathiresan called it a major milestone for the campus.
“The main campus site has been a member of the BCNET Advanced Network and now all of the other campus sites have been joining now,” he says.
“This means a significant improvement in the bandwidth that the campus will have which will enable them to implement some advanced technology solutions.”
The BCNET Advanced Network provides a private, dedicated, ultra-high-speed, fibre optic infrastructure at speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second.
It directly connects 106 colleges, institutes, research universities, federal and provincial labs and research institution sites in the province.
“We’re looking to deliver high-quality low-cost educational programs in the rural areas and that is near and dear to my heart, and to be able to do that you need all kinds of infrastructure including the technological infrastructure,” says TRU Executive Director Dr. Ray Sanders.
“What this means is that we have the connectivity to be able to offer research and programs that weren’t able to offer before.”
Sanders says that by utilizing the technology they can connect with local communities and those unable to attend the local campus to still enroll in the Health Care Assistant Program.
“Another way is with our Applied Sustainable Ranching Program where students are on ranches and only come to face to face classes on Friday afternoon or very rarely,” says Sanders.
“So to be able to be connected to use their devices is really outstanding and the video quality is so much better and we’re connected to not only the other institutions in British Columbia but also all the other institutions throughout Canada and much of the world.”